This relates to microstructures and, more particularly, to dielectric microstructures for use in microelectromechanical system (MEMS) devices.
In most current microelectromechanical system (MEMS) devices, which are a type of microstructure devices, dielectric materials or structures composed of dielectric materials (dielectric structure) often exhibit non-unit dielectric constants K, except air. When a microelectromechanical system having a dielectric material or a dielectric structure is exposed to electric field, the dielectric material or dielectric structure may block the electric field by terminating the electric field lines in the vicinity of surfaces of dielectric material or dielectric structure—resulting in unwanted electric charge accumulation; and electrical field gradients. Unwanted electric charge and/or electrical field gradients may significantly degrade performance of MEMS devices; and in some situations, may cause device failure.
Some of MEMS devices, such as microbolometers desire mechanical supports with low thermal conductance. However, existing techniques do not provide satisfactory solutions for such mechanical supports.
Therefore, what is desired is a dielectric structure exhibiting substantially a unit dielectric constant K in electrical fields, and/or low thermal conductance.